Braedon paced in front of Raena's still body, a worry line creasing the space between his brows.

"Explain to me the creature's appearance again," Grandpa Sage requested.

"Skeletal body. Looked like some dead soldier from an army. Helmet with two horns, like a devil, and its eyes..." Braedon paused and shook his head. "They were like two holes drilled into its skull. Glowing blue." He couldn't help the shiver that raced down his spine.

"Anything else?" Grandpa Sage asked carefully.

They were still in the medical room, a little light filtering from the dug-out window on the far side of the wall. The cave was filled with wooden shelves stocked with potions and leaves and herbs and flora of all sort, most of which went beyond Braedon's understanding, but all of which Grandpa Sage seemed to have found a use for at one stage or another. Thankfully, when Braedon had arrived with Raena in her arms, blabbering like some mad fool about a skeleton chasing them through the forest, it had only taken his grandpa one glance at Raena's bite marks on her arm for him to take action.

"Well," Braedon stopped pacing and bit his lip. "I guess... I heard voices. I think."

"Voices?" Grandpa Sage's face turned grave. "In your head?"

"I'm not sure," Braedon shook his head again. "It's like... they were in my head but all around me at the same time."

Grandpa Sage let out a sigh through his nose. "It's just as I thought, I'm afraid."

"What? What is it?"

Grandpa Sage grimaced and pulled out a heavy book from the large bookshelf beside him. It was well-worn, and Braedon had oftentimes seen him sifting through its pages. He knew that it contained a list of all sorts of flora and fauna that were fatal to elemental beings.

The elderly man scratched his stubbly white beard before sighing and placing the book back. "No, that creature is much too dark to be in a book like this."

"What is it?" Braedon asked again, glancing at Raena on the stone bed, careful to not let his gaze wander to the open wound - a mix of blood and pus.

"A draugr," Grandpa Sage rubbed his temples, staring at a spot on the dirt floor. "A creature from Norse mythology but very much real. It's translated name explains everything, really. Again-walker."

Braedon paled. "You mean, like the dead coming back to life?"

Grandpa Sage snorted. "I'd hardly call that alive. They're foul, ugly creatures. As dead as they come. However, they're strong enough to draw animated will back into their own body."

"It did smell like decay," Braedon recalled. "But I don't think it's a zombie."

His grandpa laughed humourlessly. "Zombie? This isn't some fairytale land, Braedon. This is real life. They do have a semblance of intelligence."

"What does it want though?"

On the stone bed, Raena stirred, and Braedon quickly forgot his question and rushed to her side, kneeling.

"Raena," he gently touched her shoulder and her eyes snapped open.

"Braedon, run!" she screamed.

Braedon stepped back, startled, but Grandpa Sage hurried to calm her.

"Filia, you are safe. It's alright. You're home."

Raena took deep, gulping breaths, tears springing to her eyes. "But that... that thing..." she stopped, looking down at her arm, her mouth open as her breathing slowly steadied and she regained her wits. "What happened?"

"We were hunted by a draugr," Braedon said, a scowl on his face but his features expressing immense relief at her awakening.

"Draugr?" she repeated drowsily.

"Undead figure."

"Like a zombie?" she asked.

Grandpa Sage scoffed at that. "What is it with you two and these zombies? They're animated individuals who possess superhuman strength and are able to increase their size at will."

Raena blinked and then shuddered visibly. "So that's how it grew. But that doesn't explain why it came after me."

"Did you aggravate it?" Braedon asked. He wished he hadn't walked away from Raena when he had. If he hadn't noticed the disturbance in the air, the forest critters that had suddenly silenced in the draugr's presence... Braedon didn't want to imagine what would have happened if Raena had been left alone with the draugr for even a second longer than she had been. He had stared into that monstrosity's eyes – or holes, whatever they were. That creature was foul, both inside and out.

"No, I didn't aggravate it," Raena snapped. "Unless you count me shooting a few arrows at it. Out of defence, mind you."

"Don't get snappy at me," Braedon growled. "I'm only asking because you're pretty good at doing that."

"Oh, that's fresh coming from you!" she snarled, propping herself up on her elbows in an attempt to get up. Her arms shook with the effort and Braedon swiftly helped her back down, careful not to hurt her. She lay on her back, glaring up at him before muttering a soft thanks.

"You two need to stop your bickering," Grandpa said softly but firmly. "Dangerous times are coming, and if you both can't stay on the same page as each other, then who will you have to look out for you?"

"We have you, Grandpa," Raena said quietly.

He smiled warmly, a sad glimmer in his eyes. "I won't always be around, filia."

A short silence settled before Braedon broke it, unable to stand the morbidity between them. "So, what's this thing after, and why have we never heard of it?"

Grandpa Sage sat on the stone bed by Raena's side his gaze on the wall opposite. "Because I didn't think there would ever be a need to tell you about them. Draugar have long since disappeared from this forest, and the few that remain in this world are far, far away."

"So, you think they wandered towards this forest?" Braedon questioned.

"No," he only pondered for a second before continuing. "No, they can't have possibly walked all that way. Some even claim these creatures are seas away. It seems unlikely but..." Grandpa Sage looked towards Raena with those deep, green eyes that held so much wisdom and compassion. "With all that's happening with magic at the moment..."

Raena's eyes fluttered closed, then open again, and Braedon watched in anxious concern as he mulled over his grandpa's words.

Since the Elemental War had begun, magic was deteriorating each year that past. Though if truth be told, magic was already starting to deteriorate before that. Still, the war had only emphasised the problem dramatically. This toxic cycle had started: too many people were drawing magic from the planet, and its utilisation in the past two wars was killing the planet slowly but surely. It was already beginning to show in the temperature drops, time changes, drastic climates evident from north to south, east to west. Nobody could keep track anymore. And in turn, with nothing stable to draw upon, people's elements were weakening every day.

"What's going to happen now?" Raena asked quietly. "Do you think if I don't use my powers again, they won't find me?"

The silence that followed her questions was all the answer required. She didn't need to explain who 'they' were. Braedon and Grandpa Sage were perfectly aware of the ominous threat that had shadowed her entire life. And now that she had finally drawn upon her own element, they'd be able to track her whereabouts. They'd be able to sense it like a hound on a trail.

"They're going to find me," she said in barely a whisper. "So many years of containing it, living in hiding, and now I irritated some Gods-forsaken creature and ruined everything."

"We don't know that for sure," Grandpa Sage said slowly. Raena made the mistake of looking up with hopeful eyes before he had finished. "But staying here is certainly no longer an option."

Braedon couldn't help but let loose a sigh himself. Grandpa Sage had created a home here for them using nothing but his craftsmanship and his earth element, carefully carving the rooms of this cave behind the Tenebran Waterfall, away from sight. He had selectively chosen the Dark Forest because it was away from the war, away from magic, from... them. This is where they had been living for almost their entire lives - in peace and tranquillity.

"But I won't use them again," Raena said, her voice trembling. "I don't even feel any different!"

Grandpa Sage cast her a sceptical look, and she swallowed.

"Fine," she admitted sulkily. "That was a lie." She took a deep breath, staring at the ceiling in defeat. "I feel... bubbly, inside. Like I have so much more energy suddenly."

"And you crave for more, don't you?" Grandpa Sage smiled, a hint of melancholy evident in his eyes.

She nodded, ashamed.

"Do not fret, filia. I always knew that it was a fool's hope to believe we could spend the rest of our lives here, as much as I wished it so. But you accessing your element isn't the only reason we must go. That draugr has tasted your blood now... and it won't stop until it hunts you down."

"Well then I'll hunt it down before it does!" she said, determined. "It's not fair we leave because of my mistake."

Grandpa Sage shook his head, his features turning instantly serious. "No. You will do no such thing. You of all people should know what happens to prey that tries to confront predator." He placed one warm, calloused hand on her uninjured arm, and Braedon watched Raena's expression suddenly relax. He knew he was using his element to ground her, calm her down and see reason. "It's alright, filia. This was bound to happen sooner or later, I was well aware of that. But don't you worry about a thing. Right now, you need to rest. Braedon," he stood and beckoned with a nod. "Come along, we must let her recuperate as much as possible before we take leave."

Grandpa Sage gave her hand a final squeeze before leaving the room, Braedon in tow. The boy only stopped once by the cave's entrance to look back at Raena, her eyes open and staring at the stalactites above, tears of frustration or pain – he wasn't entirely sure – rolling down her cheeks.

***

Raena wasn't sure how long she lay there, silently crying to herself. Hating herself for her state of vulnerability. It wasn't fair on Grandpa Sage or Braedon, leaving everything they knew for her. Just because they had made a vow to protect her. They had made a promised to protect the princess of some long-since vanquished kingdom, not some useless excuse of a huntress that was lying on a stone bed crying.

She balled her hands into fists but instantly regretted it as the tension shot up her bad arm and she let out a small groan. She didn't bother to wipe at any of the tears that fell down her cheeks and onto the stone bed. She simply lay there, unmoving until her eyes stung and she drew sleepy.

Her eyelids closed only for a second before she heard an odd noise. She snapped wide awake, instantly on alert, but from her horizontal position, she didn't see much. She lay quiet for a moment, reassuring herself that it was nothing, but an uneasy sensation was churning in her stomach. She felt like she was being watched.

Raena.

Her blood chilled and she grew remarkably still, like a deer that knew it was being hunted.

Raena, the familiar voice hissed, and she shot up, ignoring the pain in her arm as she gripped the edge of the slender stone bed, her knuckles whitening.

Behind you.

Breath tickled her ear and she swiftly turned to find herself face to face with the draugr. It's half-decayed face looked back at her with its huge, blue eyes, boring into her very soul. It grinned, its lips stretching wide and Raena let out a blood-curdling scream. She scrambled off the bed, screaming and yelling, throwing whatever was closest to her - books, glasses, pots.

It advanced towards her, yanking her hair with one meaty hand and grabbing her throat with its other skeletal hand. She felt the breath escape her as it closed its iron-like grip around her throat, lifting her from the ground. Choking noises gargled from her throat and her legs flailed helplessly in the air as she thrashed and clawed at its wrist, desperately trying to pry herself free. She felt her face grow hotter and hotter, her head feeling ready to combust and...

"Raena!"

She was suddenly dropped to the ground and the world blacked for an instant before she opened her eyes and found Braedon and Grandpa Sage, hovering by her stone bed, where she lay, breathing hard.

"My gods, Raena, it was a dream, you're okay." Braedon gripped her shoulders, his eyes huge with concern. "You were dreaming, Raena."

She couldn't seem to form the words to speak as she stared up at them both, unable to comprehend what had just happened. The draugr was here, she was certain of it. It had all felt so real.

"You were screaming in your sleep and making these... choking noises," Braedon looked down at her worriedly, sitting by her side. "What happened?"

Grandpa Sage frowned, leaning towards her. "It wasn't a dream."

He had muttered it so quietly, Raena wasn't sure she had heard him right.

"What?" she croaked.

Grandpa Sage brushed aside some of her long, blond hair, splayed across her neck, and Braedon inhaled sharply.

"What?" she repeated, breaking into a sudden, nervous sweat.

Grandpa Sage picked up a bowl of water by the table, and Raena slowly sat up, looking into its clear reflection.

"Oh my gods," she whispered, reaching a shaking hand towards her neck. An angry, red handprint had been left on her pale skin, in the exact spot the draugr had been choking her, but... she looked around. If it had been real, then where were all the glasses and pots and books she had thrown?

"I don't understand," she said, her voice rising in panic. "What's happening to me?"

"A draugr's job is to wreak havoc on living beings," Grandpa Sage explained slowly, placing the bowl back down. "It's got its eye on you now and it won't stop hassling you until it gets you."

"And does what?" she cried out in hysterics.

"Until it devours you," Grandpa Sage said quietly, his practised, steady gaze holding hers. "It'll try and drive you mad until you can't stand it any longer. It'll haunt you in dreams and hallucinations, making enough contact through your psyche to remind you that what your experiencing isn't just harmless nightmares, but something a little more."

Raena suddenly felt nauseous, and she held her head in her hands. "What am I supposed to do?"

"You? Nothing."

When she looked up, Grandpa Sage had walked towards the bookshelf and was reaching behind it. He took out a long bow, one so sleek and well-cut, made of such fine wood, that for a split second, Raena forgot all her troubles.

"Is that...?" she breathed.

"My bow," he nodded, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. It was truly stunning, the wood it was carved from, the density and height... it was made for him. And it suited the former lead weapons master of the fallen kingdom.

"But you don't..." she stuttered, still in stunned admiration. "Not anymore. You said..."

"I'll admit it's been a while," he said, looking down at his bow with such longing and love, Raena almost felt jealous. Braedon had always taught her everything that she knew, but apparently, once upon a time, Grandpa Sage had been Braedon's teacher. He was known as the best archer in Caedus, and he had been a part of the Queen's closest circle, her confidant, and her right arm in all battles.

But that was a long time ago. Now, Grandpa Sage avoided using weapons at all, if possible, though why he would throw away such a gift if he was as skilled as they said he was, Raena had no clue. She practised every day to be where she was. But Grandpa Sage? Rumour had it that the Gods had gifted him with the skills to work wood and weaponise it the way he did. His hand and the bow worked like once, and Braedon often reminisced about his agility and accuracy in archery, so refined and efficient and flawless.

Grandpa Sage gave her a friendly wink and grabbed his quiver from behind the bookshelf, slinging it over his back. Feathered arrows poked out from within.

"Well," he smirked, and Grandpa Sage had never looked more youthful than he did in that instant, looking at home with his exquisitely-made bow in his hands once again. "Times are changing. So, maybe it's time I do too. And maybe I should make it known to this draugr who I am, and what exactly I'm known for."